Sarasota startup AeroVanti has tapped a new CEO about a month after the aviation company was hit with multiple lawsuits accusing it of fraud and contract violations.
Scott Hopes is taking over leadership of the startup from founder Patrick Britton-Harr, Aerovanti announced Thursday. Hopes has a background in aviation, having founded HMD Airways in 2010 before selling the company to International Flight Services in 2013. He is also an experienced pilot with 3,500 flight hours as a pilot in command. Hopes joins AeroVanti after abruptly leaving his job as county administrator for a Florida county earlier this year amid several scandals.
Britton-Harr will remain at AeroVanti as chairman, leading business development and strategic partnerships. The company is headquartered in Sarasota and Annapolis, Maryland.
Hopes told the Baltimore Business Journal that the startup needed a more experienced executive team to anticipate the challenges that come with working in such a complex industry.
"[Britton-Harr] got off to a great start," Hopes said. "He built a company, he got members, he motivated investors and acquired aircraft, but it developed a level of momentum and growth that the organization wasn’t prepared for."
After selling HMD Airways, Hopes became county administrator of Manatee County, an over 400,000-person county near Tampa Bay and Sarasota, in 2021. Hopes resigned from his office in February after his choice for a deputy administrator position was accused of sexual harassment. Workers in the county government later alleged that Hopes directed staff to suppress information about the harassment, according to a story by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Hopes was also accused of mishandling public records by deleting information from government-owned devices, leading to an investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. As county administrator, Hopes was in charge of developing and managing the county budget and carrying out other policies from the community commission.
Hopes said he denies the allegations of suppressing information about sexual harassment and mishandling public records. He noted the data from his county phone was wiped from the device itself, but had been backed up to a computer so no information was destroyed.
“Dr. Hopes’ experience, strategic direction, and steady leadership have been valued assets at every organization with which he’s been associated, including as a healthcare executive, a county administrator overseeing a multi-billion-dollar budget, and even as a private airline founder who scaled and sold a successful private airline,” Britton-Harr said in a statement.
The CEO change comes after several former customers sued the company earlier this year for allegedly failing to provide service to its elite “top gun” members. Customers accused AeroVanti of spending money on sponsorships with companies like the University of Maryland, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Preakness Stakes in order to "embellish the business stature and company health." The company is one of the fastest-growing startups in Maryland, raising $100 million in funding last October.
AeroVanti plans to add more aircraft to mitigate the concerns around flight time and service that motivated the lawsuits, Hopes said. The challenge of working in the aviation industry was a key attraction for the industry veteran, especially since Covid-19 pandemic opened up the potential for more growth in private flights.
"With the increase in cost of commercial airline tickets," Hopes said, "there's a renewed opportunity for private aviation."
This article has been updated to include an interview with new CEO Scott Hopes.
